California brags that deadly vaccination rates have hit their highest levels in 15 years

The California Department of Public Health recently released a report that revealed vaccination rates within the state have reached a 15-year high. According to the statistics, a staggering 96 percent of all Californian children were fully vaccinated upon entering kindergarten in the fall of 2016.

It’s a small increase from 93 percent for the 2015-to-2016 school year, but it’s a fairly substantial change from the 90 percent vaccinated rate in the 2014-to-2o15 year. One of the driving factors behind this marked change in vaccination rates over the last few years is no doubt due to the passing of Senate Bill 277. The bill was met with a tremendous amount of controversy because it removed the “personal beliefs” exemption, stripping Californians of the right to medical freedom. As Mike Adams reported at the time, the California Coalition for Health Choice described the bill’s passing as “a rare act of outright rigging the results.” Not only was the bill presented as a “vote-only” item, which eliminated the opposition’s opportunity to testify on any of the bill’s amendments, public testimony was also forbidden. This means that the government essentially silenced their citizens and denied them the ability to testify, as well.

With such a far-reaching bill, it is no surprise that the vaccination rates went up; if you plan on enrolling your kid in the California school system, there are very few ways around it.

Not all of California seems keen on the new law; vaccination rates may be up across the state, but there are still stark differences from county to county. For example, Tulare County may have had 98.5 percent of their kindergartners vaccinated, but just 80.9 percent of those in Nevada County were fully vaccinated.

SB 277, and the overall increase in vaccination rates across the Golden State are both linked to the 2015 measles outbreak that started at Disneyland. Due to concerns raised by the outbreak, it’s suspected that more people decided to get their children vaccinated as a response.

Ironically, the number of autistic children in California increased in 2016, the following year. Since 2001, the number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the West Coast state has increased by nearly 7-fold. There was a 7 percent increase between the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 school years alone! The increase is even more drastic among kindergarten children, with an increase of 17 percent during the same time frame. (RELATED: Keep up-to-date with the latest vaccine research at Vaccines.news.)